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Topic: Answer key keeps changing! (Read 1198 times)

I have uploaded my exams for the end of the marking period. My students have taken both exams and now I'm attempting to grade them, but the app keeps changing my answer sheet. I'll edit the answers back to the correct answers, save them, and then scan my answer sheet to test it and it tells me it's not 100% each time, changing many of the answers on my answer key. Any ideas?

I recently sent a support request about the same issue. Answer keys on all quizzes I had previously scanned had changed. The answer keys now show the incorrect answers on both the ipad app I do the scanning with and on my account on the QK website, so the student grades are all totally wrong. Isaac replied in an email that it would be looked into and asked me to supply some account information, which I sent in my reply, but have not heard back. Any ideas what is happening and how I can fix it?

Hi All - first of all thank you for using the Forum and thank you Keith for helping us out here.

About answer keys: in order to keep user data stable and avoid corrupting results and answer keys, especially as we move forward with our PowerSchool and Skyward integrations, we made a change last month to the way you would change an answer key. We did this because our database was constantly recalculating scores and the whole thing was too fluid, and too easy for people to make mistakes, and it was too hard on the database to have people adding and removing questions, changing the key, etc...

So, as of last month, once your quiz has results, you can no longer change the answer key. This means that once you start scanning, that quiz and those results are "locked" and this makes it much easier for us to make sure your data have 100% integrity.

But you can still change the key! You just have to do it in a more formalized way. Here's how:

Step 1: if you have a quiz that already has scanned results, and you want to change it somehow, go onto the web app and make a copy of the Quiz. This copy function is available next to the "Edit" and "Delete" buttons in the Quizzes page of the Web app (we will be adding this button to the mobile app too, soon. But for now if you are mobile only you can still log into the Web app from your device and do this if you don't have access to a computer).

Step 2: When you press "Copy" you will see the new copy of the Quiz in your quizzes list. Go ahead and edit this copy however you want, and change the name, too, so you know which version of the quiz is the "new" one.

Step 3: Rescan your sheets for the new quiz, and you are done! Now all of your results will reflect the changes you made to the quiz.

I know that this is not as convenient as being able to change the quiz at any time, in any way you want, even after you have already scanned the results, but this new way is much, much better from a data reliability standpoint, and I know integrity of the data is of the utmost value. This new method will also allow us to keep the data 100% correct when we implement the PowerSchool integration later in March 2015.

Last thing: I would recommend you delete the old quiz, with the old answer key. It is no longer relevant and can only add to the chance you'll accidentally view those results instead of your "real" results (the ones from your new edited copy of the quiz). ALSO: PLEASE DO NOT TRY TO GET AROUND THIS BY DELETING ALL OF YOUR RESULTS AND THEN EDITING THE QUIZ. This will "work" right now, but soon this loophole in the system will be closed. But even though it works, it is a terrible idea to make our database turn somersaults like that. Your quiz results are almost sure to be corrupted if you try to use this workaround. Please simply make a copy of the quiz you want to change, then make your changes to that copy, and then scan the sheets into the new quiz. This is the cleanest way and it assures 100% data integrity.

And if you have comments about how to make this process better, I would love to hear them. But please understand we did this to make sure your data are protected from corruption, which we can all agree is very important.

I'll check back here for your reactions to this, and also please let me know if this solves your problem.

Thanks!!-isaac

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Thanks, Isaac.I get the "fix", but unfortunately to copy the old quizzes, rename them, edit my keys, and rescan all the papers again will take a lot of time and I will use up all but one of the free quizzes I have been allotted this month, on your new "free account" policy. So, I'll take your word for it that it's the best method. What I never got an answer for was how my keys changed by themselves anyway. I did not put the answer keys into my ipad that it shows now on both my ipad and website account. I really wanted to show off my Quickkey results to my principal and how the percent by question informs my instruction (love that part, and so would she!), but I'll either have to wait til the next quiz comes around that I want to use QuickKey for or (maybe just once?) do the "bad' fix and delete all my student papers, edit my existing key, and rescan their papers, if this is still possible. Is this still possible on the current system, without using up one of my allotted quizzes for the month?

I am sorry you are having trouble with the answer key. That's frustrating and not saving you any time!I'll respond to EFISHER in a separate post.

Please know that once you have scanned results for a quiz, you can not change the answer key. Some of you may have noticed that you can get around this restriction by deleting all the scanned answer sheets so you "don't have any results". This may seem like it works, but it actually doesn't. Your key will eventually be changed back to its original state.

It takes some time for the changes you are making to be reverted back to the original answer key, because of the sync between the mobile device and the server. However in the end, you will be stymied every time you try. We are putting a more robust lock on changing the answer key once results have been scanned, so this is less confusing.

But just to be super-duper clear about this: once you have scanned a quiz sheet for any quiz, please do not attempt to change that Quiz's answer key. It will not work. If you made a mistake and you need to change the key, the solution is simple, and it takes about 60 seconds: 1: go into the Web app's Quiz page and press the "Copy Quiz" button for the Quiz answer key you want to change. 2: Name the copy, and then change the new copy's answer key however you want. 3: Re-scan the bubble sheets for the new answer key.

Why do we lock the answer key once you have results? (or if you ever had results scanned, even if you delete them)? The reason is if we allow users to change the answer keys after sheets have been scanned, it makes the database very, very complicated... Too complicated if we want to allow people to both see and edit quizzes on their mobile, online, and also sync back to their grade-book ( we are releasing sync with PowerSchool in early April).

Thank you all for understanding this is the way we need to build Quick Key in order to make sure your data stay protected and accurate, while at the same time allowing you to sync results and answer keys across platforms, and work within this synced system, even when you're not connected to the web through your device. That's a powerful set of capabilities (working with a cloud database when you can't access the cloud), and we think this restriction is worth it, especially since it's so easy to just copy the quiz if you want to change the answer key after you have started scanning results.

Please let me know what you think!-isaac

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Thank you for playing a part in the teachermade revolution! The best software for teachers is software that is teachermade!

Thank you for using Quick Key, and for considering sharing it with your principal! I am sorry you are having trouble with the answer keys.

Quick Key answer keys don't change by themselves, unless they are changing back to their original state after being altered from their original form (and they will only revert back to their original state if quizzes have been scanned for that key).

Perhaps what you're experiencing is due to one of our features which is usually helpful to users: You can create a Quiz either on the mobile device or on the Website. And once you do, that Quiz will show up in both places, and still be editable in both places. This is a benefit to lots of people. But it can also be a hassle for users who like to change their answer keys a lot.

Here is the key thing to remember: Since you know that for information to be exchanged between the phone and the Web app, the two need to talk to each other over the Internet, give them a little time to talk, and take a moment to confirm they are synced if you see something that doesn't look right. You might not be synced.

Also, If you change an answer key on your device while it's not connected to the Web, and then you make other changes to that same answer key on the Web app, then when the mobile device and your Web account have a chance to sync again, the Web app will automatically choose the "correct" version based on the most recent edits you made. This could be why your answer key is not how you expected it.

As for the quiz limit, we polled our users and overwhelmingly this is how you thought we should limit free accounts. We chose a limit of 4 quizzes per month because after looking at how our users use Quick Key, most were doing 4 or fewer quizzes per month. We set the limit to allow 80% of our users to continue using QK for free. I recognize that copying a quiz uses up one of your free monthly quizzes.

TO GET FREE UNLIMITED QUIZZING for 1 month, please sign up for a monthly PRO account and use the coupon code 1LOVE to get the first month for free. Then, as you get used to making quizzes and checking your answer key before scanning any responses, you can downgrade your account. Once you upgrade to Pro, you'll see a link "downgrade to FREE" in your user profile page. Of course, we hope that if you use Quick Key a lot, you would consider supporting the app (which is very expensive to build and run) by buying either a monthly subscription for $4.99/month, or an annual subscription which is $30 for a year (or $20 for a year when you use the coupon code QKPROCODE. This works out to $1.66 per month. We think that's a good value). Or even better, introduce Quick Key to your principal. Right now your whole school can get Quick Key through July 2016 for just $500.

E, if you keep having trouble with your answer keys, please contact me directly at isaac --at --- quickkeyapp.com and we can look at your account to see if there is something wrong.

And please remember we may have partnered with Pearson PowerSchool so you can upload your scores, but we are not Pearson! We are two people and a few developers, and a couple of teachers like Keith, who are trying to build something good for teachers. We really are doing our best to serve you.

Thank you E!

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Thank you for playing a part in the teachermade revolution! The best software for teachers is software that is teachermade!

Thank you, Isaac, for your very thorough and gracious response to my frustration with the changing answer keys. I apologize If I seemed unappreciative of the great work you and your colleagues have done on our behalf with Quickkey. I love the concept and will work better at using your advice next time for better results. I'll try the free 1 month of the Pro version, as you suggest, then I can decide whether I can fund it myself, or with district money, or go back to the free account. Thanks again for your response.